Overnight Refrigerator Oats

I retain the simple, original name as was on my early 1990s menu for this delicious, healthy, grab and go breakfast at my luxury Bed and Breakfast. Pinterest had just erupted onto the recipe websphere with “chia pudding” as the big rage. This was intriguing to our inn’s mission to inspire with healthy breakfast options for our guests, but each time we tested an online recipe it ranged from bland to awful to inedible. My team continued testing and tasting 🤷‍♀️😱🤢🤮. As it turned out, the magic occurs just by (imagine this?) getting the correct ingredients in exact proportions, and then knowing (stay tuned) a quite specific mixing technique. Oh, believe me, there was trial and error!!  Too much chia and it was like paste or cement, for instance. Wrong yogurt or flavor options other than fresh fruit (coffee, chocolate, Pina Colada, Pinterest promised them all) was underwhelming. Finally we achieved a perfect concoction, a delicious, nutritious treat: protein, calcium, fiber, carbs and fresh fruit too! Oooooo la la!

I used to laugh and warn guests that eating one of these 1/2 pints of overnight oats was like experiencing an energy rocket ship shot in the arm! Better than coffee! Lift off! Guests would confirm the sensation! Awe!!

Yes, of course you can experiment all you want with different milk or non dairy substitutes, or zero fat yogurt or plain yogurt or whatever you want. But once we hit on this we never looked back. We served these to 1000s and 1000s of guests over the next 30 years, and we know these oats inspired many to eat healthier.

Our inn supported our local farmers through our seasonal purchases of rhubarb, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, peaches, plums, apricots, apples, melons, and other fresh fruit to stuff Overnight Oats from May through November. We always offered a choice of three flavors. At 4th of July and other holidays we mixed raspberries with blueberries for a red/white/blue breakfast treat.

This exact recipe was lost for some years when the new inn owners dumped our original blog. Thank you to my friend Lorraine for finding it on the Way Back Machine. I was also inspired to blog this when dear guests Erin and her Mom, Jane, (who magically found me in my garden at Sweet Home Allegra), specifically asked about the recipe after searching online for the inn’s lost blog.

So, this is the way to make 4 half pints of Overnight Oats. Wide Mouth mason jars are ideal, for ease of filling and later spooning. Yes you can double and triple this recipe, we surely did with no issues.

1 cup organic old fashioned oats. (Not instant oats, not steel cut oats)

1 cup VANILLA Greek yogurt (your choice of  fat content, the more the better IMHO. Zero fat is not necessarily a good thing.)

1/8 cup organic chia seeds

1 1/3 cup milk ( Whole or 2%)

The measurement of 1/8 cup chia must be absolutely accurate. Make the $5 investment in a 1/8 measuring cup, don’t guess.

Combine ingredients well in a bowl. Use a whisk to really beat up the oatmeal and the chia: this is what keeps the pudding from becoming like paste. I’ve also heard it said that chia’s nutrients are better metabolized when the seed is broken this way.

That’s it. Divide 1/2 your pudding into the 4 jars, layer in some fruit, divide the rest of the pudding over the fruit, top with more fruit.

In this case, my friend Jess brought a fruit salad to family pot-luck the evening before I blogged this, so I just used leftovers to make a batch of overnight oats. Use what you have and love! Fresh fruit is the only rule.

Wipe the rims, seal with plastic caps, refrigerate overnight. These keep up to 6 days, best eaten in the first 4.

Photos here of my darlings, Millie (5), Isabelle (8 in a few days) and Finn (13), the day of the fruit salad:

Typically? In South Haven (Blueberry Capital of the World) it’s all about blueberries. We had excellent success in the off season with frozen berries of all varieties, by the way. I imagine, but have not tested, that frozen fruit from the regular market would work nicely.

You now know something important. This is the way.

Fresh apricots: